Project unity
by confidintripod
Summary: After the war a facility built to test measures against the flood should they ever re-surface becomes overrun from the inside, this follows multiple survivors and fatalitys.All aliens, weapons and background belong to bungie.
1. Outbreak

This is a story following multiple characters, I will try to add chapters as often as I can, hope you enjoy and as its my first, any reviews would be very helpful. :)

As it goes there will be different themes so... yea I'm not sure exactly what two are most prominent.

**CASE FILE: **Project union

**SUBJECT: **Hue Laurence

**BACKGROUND: **A mechanist, he and his twin brother, Arnold (Arny), were immediately more interested in working with experimental new works; they both shared a natural skill with machines and had a love of working things out

Hue walked briskly down the corridor, his brother in tow, Arny was simply sauntering along.

"You sure you want to come down here on your break?" Hue asked.

"Nah, I'd rather be around little miss Sandra" Arny replied sarcastically "After all Mains is on duty, I won't be on creep watch"

"Ugh, don't make me think about that perv, and don't think you're getting to me by mentioning Sandra… were just friends"

"Yea, and you _deeffiinneettllyy _don't want more from her"

It was true, Hue did have a thing for her, but it was just a crush, nothing major, Arny meanwhile loved nothing more than to torment him for it.

"This place gives me the hibijibis, why do the flood containment areas even need to be this creepy?"

"Don't quite know hue'y m'boy" replied Arny using some perversion of an accent that doesn't exist.

As they crossed the threshold of the sub-basement they entered the cryo wing, frozen flood, they have to be kept at -125 degrees, -150 just to be safe, but apparently there were some strange sounds coming from here, they had been told more than a dozen times that metal contracting from the cold and pressure used to keep said cold concentrated, but every time there was so much as a creak from the cryo wing and suddenly everyone was acting like the boogie man was under their bed. So the two went down to make recordings that they knew were safe, measure numbers that they knew were right and check math that they already had the answers to. They passed the unlucky guards with the job of sitting around here waiting for their shift to end what could three guys and two elites do to stop a group of flood in the dim of this place?

Hue went to work while Arny simply sat on a few metal boxes; they talked while hue worked, occasionally hue would ask Arny to hold something or check something to which he would mock-protest, until…

"Hey! No that can't be right, hey Arny get over here and check this"

Arny arrived at his brother's side "what?"

"These numbers… they can't be right…"

"Let's see…" Arny looks over his brother's work "As much as I want to give you the A you made a fatal error, look, your pressure is way too low."

"But that's the amount being recorded"

"Couldn't be… that would mean the temperature would be… -98…" As Arny trailed off the two looked to one another and ran to the exposed ice-chamber.

It was pockmarked with holes and there was a stench in the air, the two drew their magnums and turned to run Arny suddenly fired and a glob of goo exploded, Hue hadn't even seen anything then there was another yelp.

**SUBJECT:** Arnold (Arny) Laurence.** STATUS: **Deceased.** CAUSE: **Repurposed.

Hue turned and stared at his brother, not his brother, a flood. He raised his gun and his hands were shaking and he fired three times two shots hit before it leapt on top of him, grabbing his head and pinning him, all he managed was "You bastard Arny, why didn't you just stay in the mess" before a large bone-spike rammed through his skull.

**SUBJECT: **Hue Laurence. **STATUS:** Deceased. **CAUSE: **Lobotomized.


	2. SUPRESS

**CASE: **Project union.

**SUBJECT:** Dr. Amelia Tenner.

**BACKGROUND REPORT: **Amelia Tenner graduated from new-harvest collage on the renamed colony "Spartan hope" with a P.H.D. in both biology and alien biology, when approached about project union she readily agreed to join saying: "I went into medicine to save lives; those things are an insult to everything I, or any sane person, stand for." She proved a valuable asset to the team.

Amelia had no idea what she was watching, the cells were duplicating… wrong, there was little or no change to the parent but the flood spore was causing rapid division, similar to cancer all those years ago before the war, thinking of the war made her subconsciously glance at the elite across the room Th'nar, as she called him (even after being told countless times she was mispronouncing the name), was busily trying to figure out what went wrong with the SUPRESS, the drug cocktail slowed flood growth, but it was still inevitable and required to be administered before infection, still they were making progress. She returned to her sample; the flood cells now resembled a gland of some kind, she sighed "well we can cross cefuroxime off the list" she and Th'nar had become overly used to this, at the point they were at they were trying anything along the same lines of SUPRESS, SUPRESS only worked to speed the heart rate to a nearly dangerous level just to prevent cells from being infected as fast, less of the spores stop on cell slowing rate of change, and at that bought the user a couple of hours if they were lucky, it also had the added bonus of causing the user to go into an almost animalistic state. But still, if they find a way of improving SUPRESS then maybe they could medicate a victim on it, until then…

"We'll figure it out," Th'nar said "Amelia, you look like you haven't slept in days!" he exclaimed as he turned.

"I was up last night finishing the last test batch of the drug." She replied.

"And the night before that, working on elimination of the nuclei of infected cells" He added.

"Right, I… I just can't let this thing win, I don't want it to beat me" She allowed a bit too much of her frustration through and bit her lip, praying Th'nar never picked up on it, he did.

"We already achieved something with the drug, we can't assume that were going to find a cure but we can make it as easy as possible for those who come after us to discover what we could not and that should be something to look forward to."

"Of course getting all the glory would be nice." Amelia replied and they shared a laugh, she smiled at the elite, funny, all these years after the war and now here they were, working on what could have been a merciless bio-weapon used on either side was now a joint cure research. Project union had been, unusual, a mix of human and sangheili scientists, engineers, soldiers and whoever else would be needed, just to find a cure or immunity to the flood. No matter how much they convinced themselves there were more halo's and god knows what else containing flood, if this worked we could fight them. This facility contained frozen flood, samples to test on, no ships were kept in the facility under any circumstance, if containment was breached the facility was bombed from orbit, O.D.S.T.'s and the elite equivalent would be sent in if there was proof of survivors, but there was ONE chance, attempt to take back the place ONE time, if that failed… boom.

"You should go get some rest, I'll finish here" Th'nar said.

She smiled thanked him and left, as she walked she thought about him, he had become quite the friend, they had been forced together upon their joint discovery of the drug, a personal lab, your own work area away from the rest of the team, neither could resist the opportunity, eventually work talk became small talk, small talk became questions, eventually they were spending almost all their time together, she smiled to herself, her best friend here wasn't even human.

She made her way to the sleeping quarters, upon remembering which room was hers she entered and collapsed on the bed, drifting into sleep.

She leaned in and kissed him, the alien arms around her hugged her close to Th'nar, his mandibles stroked her forehead, she looked into his eyes, he said "I love…" BOOM! She woke, confused both at her dream, and the fact that she enjoyed it, but now there was the more pressing concern of the loud noise that had ripped her from her slumber, so she rolled and froze.

Standing, or rather stumbling back onto what it was using as feet after slamming against the door hard enough to break it off the hinge, in her doorway was… something. It resembled a human with a jellyfish growing out of their back with an elite's arm protruding from a place that would have been quite funny if it was not so gruesome, a flood infection form. She had been trained what to do should this happen, she reached for her bottom drawer as fast as she could, pulling out an assault rifle, she wished now she had spent any time using it, still she knew the barrel from the trigger and sprayed half a clip into what she believed to be the head, knocking the twisted monster on its heels and throwing it out into the hallway, two more burst in attracted by the sound, she blasted one in much the same manner, as she aimed for the other and pulled the trigger, CLICK! The blood drained from her face, she glanced at the ammo count, zero, she looked up to see an infected elite raising a hand that bared startling resemblance to a cat'o'nine tails, she closed her eyes and as the killing blow was about to land, the creature exploded to the sound of a shotgun, she wiped the goo from her eyes and saw a very shaken looking marine standing there, as she looked to his nametag: PRIVATE JOE FITSPATRICK. Remembering herself and completely in-character she shouted "What the hell is going on!"

Joe could only muster "Outbreak… need to leave… rescue team… one chance" before bending over and vomiting on the floor, Amelia was glad she had worn her clothes to bed, including shoes, she bent and grabbed the rest of her ammo, a few cartridges, reloaded a bit awkwardly and then started moving with Joe, after a moment of running and attempting to ignore the fact that things were in chaos she turned and said; "we need to get the SUPRESS, then something might be salvaged" Joe nodded, she was starting to see a bit more of a soldier in him since the initial shock had worn off. Truth be told she actually was scared for Th'nar, she convinced herself it was because he was her friend but if that was the case why did she lie to Joe? She knew that the files containing information on how to make SUPRESS were already on both the human ship GUNNING FOR GLORY and the elite one CLEAN AND RIGHTEOUS. Although the marine didn't come across as being overly smart and she doubted that he would figure it out.

As they rounded a corner Amelia got an eye-full of gore; a human scientist being torn in half by one huge elite-flood, after the shock wore off she unloaded a few rounds at it which only seemed to warrant its attention, it turned, howled, and then hurled half the carcass it was holding, the other half following suit, she managed to duck under the first lump of meat but while the second caught her side and threw her against the wall, the monstrosity then began to barrel down the corridor Joe fired at it three times, heated shells landing on the floor as the shotgun discharged them, the monster wouldn't stop. An elite in the armour of a guard, stained with blood and ooze came running round the corner wielding two plasma rifles, firing one at each leg the elite blasted the creature face-first onto the barrel of Joe's shotgun, the elite stopped a moment "Are either of you hurt?" Amelia pushed herself up, looked to Joe and replied "A little shaken but were fine otherwise", "Thanks, that was a tough one" added Joe.

"The large ones are tough but the smaller are cunning, be careful but I need to go" and with that the elite bolted in another direction without another word.

The pair saw things as they went; guards being over powered, scientists trapped, other bands of survivors, friends turned into mindless beasts, the list goes on…

As they finished off the last of a few spiders they encountered Amelia realised they were nearly at the lab as they closed on it they saw a dead flood thrall with a stack of steel shelves rammed through its chest cavity, they could hear noise inside, this was soon accompanied by a man bounding out and past the two, as they entered they saw Th'nar pushing himself up, using a table for support, Amelia asked "What happened" as she ran to his side.

"A fool." He replied, he raised and said "We need to go, fast, these foul creatures have already infested this wing"

Joe turned and began to say "Well there's a panic room at the lab…" He wouldn't finish this statement due to the large spike of bone-like material protruding from his chest, he gave it a 'now that shouldn't be there' look before it was removed, taking a large portion of his lungs with it.

**SUBJECT:** PVT. Joe Fitspatrick. **STATUS:** Deceased. **CAUSE:** Impaled on flood arm/scythe.

Amelia and Th'nar gazed with horror as Joe fell, a lifeless heap, at the feet of a flood that had previously been incapacitated by steel shelving in its chest, and said flood now roared at the two scientists, Th'nar raised a plasma pistol, firing green bolts at the zombie, Amelia, snapping out of her shock, blasted the flood with her rifle emptying her last clip, the combined fire knocked the flood head over heels into a wall.

They both froze as they heard moans and shrieks followed by the screams of someone being turned into something, the two looked at one-another and ran for the other lab. Amelia checked for any remaining ammo, but knew she had none; Th'nar meanwhile fired his pistol at a few spiders that were beginning to catch the pair of fleeing survivors. They could see the safe room, a lock box, only opened from the inside, it had communication and armour, little else, really it was so survivors could pray the one rescue attempt worked without being killed. As they entered Amelia slammed the door close button and entered her clearance code while Th'nar fired a last few shots into the macabre crowd behind them Amelia saw one flood outrunning the rest, a particularly gruesome apparition, she threw her rifle at it, knocking it off balance for a moment, in that moment she saw the remnants of a name-tag: FITSPATRICK. Her heart sank, the flood worked as fast as she had heard, the doors closed and the flood began pounding the door, Amelia sat, head in hands, while Th'nar walked to the communicator.

**SUBJECT:** Th'nar Valtromee

**BACKGROUND REPORT: **Th'nayar Valtromee was trained, like all sangheili, in the art of battle but showed from an early age a natural affinity for medicine, he volunteered for training as a field-medic during the elite-brute war (also known as the war of the betrayers), When project union was brought to Sangheilos he immediately signed up for the diminutive but skilled elite science team.

Th'nayar walked to the communicator in the safe room, he glanced at Amelia, the human had crumpled, head in hands, she did say things never really got to her until after she had time to think about them. As the communicator buzzed to life he contacted CLEAN AND RIGHTEOUS, another sangheili voice came over the communicator; "We are aware of the situation, please confirm identity"

"Th'nayar Valtromee and Amelia Tenner" replied Th'nayar "We are currently in the lab safe room, number" (he glanced around the human numbers until he found their translation, and swore he would put more work into numerics) "Twenty one"

"We are still preparing the rescue team as we speak; they will come get you when the facility has been re-claimed"

"Or know where to dig us up if the rescue fails" adds Amelia.

The console blinks out and Th'nayar turns to look at Amelia, her own comment causing her to slip into a fit of sobbing, Th'nayar walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder, unsure of what to say, he knew her a fairly long time know and would call her a friend, even a battle sister (if humans have similar war techniques) but he had started to feel something more for her, he knew she didn't reciprocate those feelings, he was well aware her kind found his kind more visually repulsive than his found hers, since the war anyway, he had never said it but know she needed him and he cursed himself for not knowing what to do, say.

Even when it began, he was attempting to get his computer working in the lab; she found him, what kind of warrior was he? In his society the males HAD to protect the females, there was nothing more to it, but where had he been when she needed him then? And know he is here and can't think of what to do, he hated himself for it.

But then she looked up and smiled at him, slowly and hesitantly she reached around and hugged him, pressing her head into his chest, he hoped she couldn't hear his heart quicken through his body-suit, in return he reached out and held her, slowly he lowered his head, his split cheek pressing against the back of her head, his snout against her shoulder.

"I'm glad you're ok" she said.

"I should have been there for you, when this started"

"You're here now, that's what matters"

And with that one sentence all the guilt he had felt lifted, and the two sat there, cradling each other, flinching as the banging got louder.


	3. Flood arent the only monster

(Disclaimer: none of this characters views are my own, they are purely the character, I wanted to make that clear just in case)

**SUBJECT:** Steven Mains

**BACKGROUND: **Steven was an unusual case, originally a police officer; he had to turn in his badge after abusing his power and being overly brutal, after that he signed up for military training. When the project was hiring guards which were needed in abundance he stepped forward, his brutality and lack of remorse raised a few eyebrows but it was decided that he would take a lot to shock.

Mains just couldn't understand it, Sandra had turned him down again yesterday, he had seen those two damn twins glaring at him the entire time, now she was walking past and shaking that ass of hers as she went, he shook his head with it, she HAD to like him, maybe she was a tease, he reasoned with himself. Since he had taken the job he had been obsessed with her, ignoring her refusal's he always came back, his dad always said "never give up, if you want somthin' ask for it, y' don't get it… take it when ye have th chance" that was the only thing his dad had ever taught him. He liked to think the reason he made a bad cop was because he never came from a pampered background, that said- it was still better than this, no action, of any kind, just standing around all day and cold showers at night. He had no idea how the rest lasted, especially Sandra, how much she got home-side he had no idea but she certainly left more than him drooling. She worked as a botanist, literally growing the oxygen for the place, and that was very close to the barracks, he often had a good long look, better than coffee to wake a man up.

Bored, he decided to check his shotgun; it looked to be in good condition, he never trusted anyone here, that's why he had a 7" combat knife under his pillow. 'Thank god were expected to keep their own bunks clean, no-one was going to find that baby any time soon' he thought. And so he then looked at his magnum, looked a little scratched but in working condition. He continued on his patrol, as he passed one of the entrances to the sub-level he started to get a god-awful stench, "That's worse than the damn split-jaws" he said to himself, turning he heard a weird scampering sound, "Definitely worse than the split-jaws", cocking his gun he took a closer look… and then he saw a flood-man close up for the first time. It sort of… speed-limped at him, whatever it was trying, he wasn't going to let it finish, he discharged his shotgun into its chest, 'these things weren't so tough' he began to think, then it decided to get back up…

"Well that's just rude" he exclaimed firing two more shots, one in the head, one more in the chest, the thing collapsed again but he was starting to hear more of them, he slammed the door close and put in his lock-code. The heavy metal door slammed shut, a resounding thump emanated from the other side of the door, he sighed, now for the alarm, he started to turn only to see a claw burst through the closed door… A shiver ran up Mains back, and he was tough to scare, he leaned into his com and reported "this is Steven Mains, I have a breach of flood containment, repeat; breach of flood containment, I am at sub-basement entrance four, repeat four." He got a reply he wasn't expecting: "Damn, listen mains the security alarm in the sleeping quarters is being checked for bugs and is disabled, but we need you to go and rouse as many as you can, we need to retreat, we don't want these things infecting any more than they already have." Mains turned to the hole and shouted: "Persistent assholes aren't ye' " He blew off the arm with another blast, he then leaned the barrel at the new-window on the door and emptied his gun into it. He then turned and ran, after a moment he glanced over his shoulder and saw a second hole had been punched, and weird spider things were flooding through, as one dashed at him he squeezed the trigger of his shotgun, CLICK, "Fuck" he should have counted the shots, the spider leapt at him and he smacked it out of the air by simply clubbing it with his gun and stamped on it for good measure.

He continued running as gunshots and the splutter of plasma weapons took up the mantle of noise, alarms started blaring as he ran towards the living quarters. He skidded to a halt outside of a guard station and swung open the door, inside he saw two guards, both looked new, one was loading a shotgun the other was picking up a battle rifle, the one with the shotgun was still wearing a marine uniform so they were very new, still better than no help. Mains checked their name-tags: PRIVATE ANDREA RILEY was the one in the guard uniform, the marine was PRIVATE JOE FITSPATRICK. "You two, come on, we need to get the eggheads moving thanks to some genius deciding to shut off the alarms in the place their most needed ", the two just nodded and grabbed some equipment and followed to the quarters, it was a big place and as they roused the scientists, engineers and sub-personnel he heard shouting, soon it was stopped by a crunch as one unlucky elite was slammed into the wall so hard both took more than a few breaks from the impact, "Riley, drop that motherfucker!". She complied by landing a burst in each leg of the flood, two in the chest, and one in the head to finish it off, it slumped after the barrage and collapsed atop its victim's corpse. "Nice" Mains commented, Riley meanwhile checked her ammo count, then the clip directly explaining "I never trust those auto counters", looking down the slit on the clip she shoved it back in. They ran down the hallway until they hit a fork, three ways, luckily, and before anyone could choose a direction Fitspatrick suddenly screamed as a tentacle pulled him into one of the rooms, Mains whirled and fired past Fitspatrick's shoulder, knocking the silhouette back, Fitspatrick then fired multiple shots into it, finishing it off, he looked kind of shaken but not hurt. "Let's split up, we'll cover more ground" said Riley, this time it was Mains who just nodded and took off on the middle way, slamming his fist on doors and yelling.

He stopped on the last, SANDRA BURKLOW, then an idea came to mind "Take it when you got the chance… Thanks dad" he whispered to himself as he entered the room and woke her. "Sandra, quickly, the flood are out." Sandra rolled over, took one look and said "Shit you're not joking" He shook his head, shits really hit the fan, everyone is headed topside, I think we would have a much better chance with the safe room in the guard barracks. She nodded, she knew the barracks was a possible fall-back. He waited while she dressed and he led her to the barracks, he was disappointed by the lack of a bed in the safe room, he looked to his own smiled and said "hold on a sec", she paused "what?" he grabbed her arm and she yelped "what the fuck are you doing?" He threw her onto the bed and grabbed her by the leg and said "can't turn me down now" she was trying to get away from him and little did he know her fist had clenched around the handle of a certain 7" blade; combat knife, she suddenly twisted, embedding 6 and a half inches of merciless steel into his merciless arm. He let go and she ran for the safe room, he pulled the blade out and looked at her, "Oh, now you've done i… ACH!" he exclaimed and dropped the knife as he felt like a heated dentist drill was just rammed into the base of his skull, he reached up only to feel a familiar ball-shape with its legs wrapping around his neck, he could already see darkness clawing at the edges of his vision…

**SUBJECT:** Sandra Burklow

**BACKGROUND:** Sandra was a perfect addition to the team; she had already worked on ships oxy-centres and it was her idea to set the project up on one of the "glassed" worlds while growing oxygen for the facility, thus minimizing risk should the flood escape.

Sandra watched as Mains collapsed, he held out a hand from across the room, his eyes filling with tears, Sandra just said "At least now you'll look like the monster you are" and she closed the door. She listened a moment to the sobs changing into the moans of the flood, as the creature that was Steven Mains mindlessly stumbled away.

**SUBJECT:** Steven Mains. **STATUS:** Deceased. **CAUSE:** Repurposed.

She leaned her head against the door, mulling over what just happened, she turned to the console to report he survival, as she walked she debated whether or not to report the last act of the guard, or let his turning into a flood be enough.


	4. Prisoner of the past

**SUBJECT: **La'vemmee

**BACKGROUND: **La' was a convict at a sangheili prison, known to be highly dangerous he killed several innocents for no apparent reason saying "It was the thrill of the hunt." When the Project needed test subjects and no elite would step forward La' volunteered himself for a reduced sentence.

It had become normal for him, he woke, read a little from a translated human fiction, he wasn't enjoying it but there was little else to do, taken by what he hoped was a human guard, the other sangheili knew what he had done, honestly he had lied, he killed them for what they had done to him, he felt the burn mark on his arm subconsciously, MURDER, as was traditional he had been branded with the symbol of his crime. They had taken some blood, testing some drug on the cells then allowing them to be infected; he shuddered in memory of the one time they tested on him as a whole, the memory took hold:

Heart rushing, blood pulsing through his veins, all he could feel was rage… terrible rage, at being caged, why were the humans backing away? Was he making that panting noise? He tried to talk but couldn't manage a whisper, and then he tried to shout a question and simply roared like some kind of beast. Was this some sort of joke? He tried to back away from guards that began moving towards him, only for his over-active muscles to slam him into a wall. Frustrated he stood a moment and then one of the sangheili guards grabbed his arm and he released that frustration and anger, punching the guard hard enough in the side of his long head, the guard slammed against the floor as a human aimed something at La' so he rushed in slamming against the small alien, it, in turn, smashing into a wall. Then he fell on one knee and pulled a dart out of his neck, not remembering it hitting him, then looked at the empty weapon the human had been holding, as the drug and sedative waged war in his system, he looked at the human that was regaining its balance, holding its face with red blood running out of somewhere around the centre, a slurred "sorry" was all he could manage before collapsing.

But, for now anyway, that wasn't going to happen, now though all he had was memory, of Sieriana, of those sick bastards he killed, of prison. He had a good life, he had been trained, as any male, but then when he expressed no interest in joining the war, they. He closed his eyes, the memory too painful, he took out his one memory, he had smuggled it in, a small drawing she had made, he never asked her from what, she had been so… A tear formed at seeing the image again, he wiped it away with a knuckle and a small anger welled in him, they had gotten what they deserved, but it was too late.

Suddenly an alarm started blaring, he heard cursing emanate from the guard house that his cell was on a tangent to, he walked to the bars of his cell, angling his head against the hard metal bars, this was no ordinary alarm, guards wouldn't be this panicked over any alarm, he wished he had flatter features like an unggoy or human, over the din of the alarm he thought he could hear the words; "Flood… Breach… Evacuate… Dead…"He could feel his joint's locking underneath his orange prison uniform, he was no fool, the flood were out and now the facility was going to be destroyed, but evacuate? Maybe the tidbits that he had picked up from listening in on guards conversation were incomplete… Then he heard the guards leave…

"Hey! Don't leave me here! Someone! If they get me I'll just be one more to deal with!" He cried desperately, he was shacking, he had seen images of what the flood did to sangheili, and he wanted no part in it, "Please! Please anyone! Even just shoot me; I don't want to be one of those… Things!" He was truly frightened, he started pulling on the bars of his cell, slamming into them, pounding them with his fists; "Come on, COME ON!" he stopped as he heard the creak of the door to the cells, he backed away as he heard footfalls coming down the hallway, "Oh ancient one's be my guide, let me not stray from the path…" he whispered a prayer to himself as he hear the footfalls nearing his cell, "… Let those who would deceive me be silenced, and may I be blind to those who would distract…" They were right next to the cell, his back was against the wall, "… May I take the path you took before me, and may my journey end as yours did…" he could see the shadow of something, "…And may I be at peace, in everlasting paradise." He closed his eyes, only to flick them open as he heard a voice; "Listen, I don't know what you did to piss every other elite off around here, and I don't care…" There was a human dressed in a uniform of some kind, not a guard or a scientist, "… But we all deserve a chance, even if it's just to run from those things." The human threw a ring of keys onto the bed, turned and ran, La' couldn't believe it he grabbed the keys, the picture and tried each key until the door opened.

And it was only as he stepped out that he realised that he had no idea where to go, the guards would think he broke out and gun him down, and he hadn't been allowed very far around the place to know where anything was, the human that helped him out was gone, he entered the guard office and looked around, he saw a sangheili symbol, ARMS, on a door, he opened it and was met with a multitude of armour, weapons and other equipment, both sangheili and alien, lining the walls, he closed the door and stripped, donning the black guard armour, he slotted the picture underneath, though he searched for a shield status on the holographic H.U.D. in front of his eyes he found none, no wonder the armour was so light, he realised they had probably planned to install one of the counter-measures that were being built, use the technology as its discovered. He grabbed a plasma pistol and then hefted a rifle for each hand, he paused at the armour plug-ins, but seeing all of the lock-ups were gone decided to make-due without, he stepped outside and was met face to face with a flood.

It swung at him with some bony-limb; he ducked under and kicked its legs out from under it using one of his large feet. It collapsed and he sprayed it with searing hot plasma.

He stood, crouching down he realised it had been like him once, he could see the remains of a segmented jaw, there was purple blood mixed with the green-brown slime, La' then remembered that his disguise would only fool humans, to them all sangheili smelled the same, but a guard of his own species would know him in an instant, reluctantly he dipped his hand in the bloody slime and took a deep-fresh breath, then smeared the noxious concoction all over-himself, masking the smell of him with the alluring scent of death and blood, wonderful.

He started debating his options, 1. Leave with the refugees, he might be able to slink back into society, but eventually he would be found, scratch that. 2. Go to a human colony, some of them are a mix of species, but if another sangheili realises his identity… If there's one thing worse than prison, it's probably human prison. And 3. Explain the truth to someone who could clear his name, he wanted to avoid that, he had lied about his reason to murder, he knew he had to reveal the truth, though he had no idea whether he would be believed. He sighed and set off to try and find the hopefully still alive sangheili guard captain: Mazdel Theropee.

As he went he spotted a large flood picking up a scientist, it ripped them in half but then seemed to get distracted, he heard gunfire, human weapons.

He rounded the corner and aimed a gun at each leg of the beast, melting them underneath it; one of the humans fired and killed the creature.

As he looked on he recognised one, there was a female and a male dressed as a soldier, the female was Dr. Tenner, one of the few scientists who visited him to apologise after he had been tested on, he had enjoyed the company. Seeing that she had been knocked over he asked "are either of you hurt?" trying to put on a voice, not that it mattered, she replied "A little shaken but were fine otherwise", the male then added "Thanks, that was a tough one".

Feeling he had to say something a guard would he replied; "The large ones are tough but the smaller are cunning, be careful but I need to go" and then he ran in a bit of a panic, leaving the two to their fate. As he continued he saw a human female guard being thrown into a wall, she looked at him and pointed at a door as he saw the life bleed out of her.

**SUBJECT:** Andrea Riley. **STATUS:** Deceased. **CAUSE:** Beaten to death.

He fired upon the flood that had killed her, two of them went down easily, a third continued running at him, he threw his only grenade at it, the blue blur sticking to, and decimating its abdomen. He opened the door and saw a male human cowering in a corner and then he saw a sangheili raise from behind a desk, a large desk, could it be? "Looks like were not 'screwed' as you believed" said Commander Mazdel Theropee to the human, who was trying to look around la'. La' decided to keep up the act until they were safe, "I'm not familiar with this wing, where will we go from here?" "There is a safe room nearby" replied the Commander, La' noticed he had a broken arm, "here" La' said giving his pistol to the Commanders good arm, he then looked to the human, turned and picked up the fallen guards rifle, handing it to the human, it exclaimed "There's almost no ammo!" while the Commander began to lead La' away, La' noticed the human kneel before their fallen comrade, it looked very upset as it picked up a new clip, La' could see himself standing in the humans place, hunched over Sieriana, tears in his eyes.

He blinked and he realised the human had caught him staring; he turned and briskly hurried forward, pretending that nothing had happened.

**SUBJECT:** Mazdel Theropee

**BACKGROUND:** Mazdel was a highly decorated Commander when he showed interest in joining the project many elites who had already volunteered rejoiced, he was always a very stern Commander, as most sangheili, his strict regimes came as a bit of a shock to many of the human guards but his methods were highly effective and very fair.

As they arrived at the safe room and entered Mazdel waited for the human and the guard to get inside before closing and locking the metal door, he turned, the guard was staring at him, "please, turn your translator off." He said. Mazdel was surprised to be addressed in such a disrespectful tone from one of his troops, though he couldn't recognise who due to the grime, probably Salen. He turned his translator off, the human looked at them both and said something, shrugged and walked to the communication console, "I am… not one of your guards, I am La'vemmee" Mazdel froze, that psychotic? He hadn't liked the idea of keeping such a monster here, the flood were enough evil, he drew the pistol only to see that it had no power core. He backed away, dropping the useless object, at full he could easily defend himself but with a broken arm…

"Stay away from me!" he shouted, La' simply continued to stare at him, La' then spoke up; "Everything you know about me is wrong… I am a murderer but it was in self-defence, I wanted to get into farming, you know, as our ancestors did before the lying false-prophets spread their message, I wanted a calm life. One day, I arrived at my home, found my bond-mate dead… I hunted them down, hunted them like animals and slaughtered them like animals, killed their family… their children" he punched the wall, hard. "I had no idea what I was doing, I had become that which I set out to destroy, they killed her because of her art… they believed it was wrong for a female to be able to out-shine them." He drew from under his armour a small picture, it was a tree in sangheilos, it was small but amazingly detailed, beautiful, Mazdel listened to the confession, taking the picture, true, they couldn't find any reason for him to have started killing… "But why… why not say this to start with?" La' seemed to slump and for the first time Mazdel saw what was really there, a broken sangheili, torn between admitting passion's which were frowned upon male's expressing and the weight of grief. "I… I couldn't, I can't admit to myself that I did it, killing so many of my own people…" La' looked like he was going to be sick. "Hey, now that startling new evidence has arisen, I believe your punishment may require revision…" Mazdel said, taking back his usual posture and tone, La' simply looked at him, saluted and sat, they turned their translators on again, the human sat down, "So what were you two, y'know what? I won't ask." The human then looked the two up and down and said "My names Julian marc by the way."


	5. Falling through doors

Sorry about this one taking so long.

* * *

**SUBJECT:** Julian marc

**BACKGROUND:** Julian marc was born and raised on earth, he left the mother-planet when he left school and after a year travelling he decided to become a chemist, an unusual choice considering he despised taking pills for so much as a headache but he developed a natural ability to tell formula apart and was excellent at math, he enjoyed the work and upon hearing about it sent his resume to Project unity and was accepted.

Dr. Marc had been having a good day, he was new to the project, only arriving a few months previously, but things were all very easy and he knew he was helping towards one of the greatest discoveries in history, the cure for flood infection, or at least some form of immunisation.

Still things were polar, when SURPRESS was developed everyone was so excited… but when the first test subjects went ballistic it was a major setback, one key issue being that they couldn't yet determine what the cause for such behaviour was…

He sat back in the mess-hall, gazing at a small group of three elite's, he had never worked with aliens before, it was strange hearing them talking, for so long the only communication had been at gun-point, the elite's started laughing loudly, it was peculiar; no matter how different and strange they were they still had distinctly the same laugh as humans.

Marc stood and left, passing the group of elites, and headed back to the lab to check his result's, he walked slowly but reached the lab eventually, upon lifting the result on what effect the latest herbicide to be tested on flood, there had been some form of change, as he looked at the numbers, "crap, it's probably just adaptation but… maybe" he said to himself, "hey! I'm going to put this into my personal console" he explained to one of the other scientists.

Upon arriving back in his room he punched in the data and sat back, leaning back in his chair lifting the front legs slightly, and sighed. He continued to sit there thinking, staring at the ceiling, what will happen after a weapon is found? He had always wanted to see the destruction of the flood, they all had… But the rings… He had never actually thought of what would be done, would they be destroyed? Such a waste but would it be wise to leave something that dangerous in working order?

Then he heard the shouting, the blood-curdling screams, that can only mean one thing…

He froze, he couldn't comprehend what he knew was happening, though deep down a memory of what to do stirred in him.

He reached for his magnum, almost everyone had some form of weapon for this situation. Marc checked the ammo, full, he grabbed the four extra clips, noting that the sound that was proving more difficult to block out than he first thought, "Why weren't there any alarms? Fucking hell." He hesitantly made his way to the door, amongst the screaming, sounds of gore and hideous thumping rhythm of flood footsteps, he could hear gunfire, then he was rudely interrupted by something that seemed to be somewhere between a fist and a concrete block smashed through the door, right into his chest and hurdling him into the far wall, as the dark claws of unconsciousness ebbed his vision he managed "What's up your ass?" before succumbing to the head wound and the non-existent mercy of the flood.

Dr. Marc woke, that was the first surprise, the second was the hand of a new guard being offered to him. He took the offer and glanced around for his gun, noticing it embedded in several points on the wall… so much for that then, following his gaze the marine said "Well next time you decide to take a door to the face, don't use your gun to block it" he turned as the marine introduced herself; "Andrea Riley, at your service" he nodded "Julian Marc" he then noticed the eerie silence, "Where is everyone?"

"You were out when I passed, everyone else has either moved out or… well worse, when I came back you were still out so after I had bothered to take care of your other guest" she said as she glanced at the flood's body still in the doorway "I decided to give you five, then help you if you woke up, leave if you didn't."

"Good thing I woke then… What was I on anyway?"

"Six" She gave him an urgent look while moving towards the door and he reluctantly followed her into the unknown, they followed the regular rout until they found a number of body's ready for infestation and enough blood to supply a hospital for a few years, glancing at Riley, Marc was relieved when she suggested they take another path.

Sadly fate intervened when a loud screeching moan threw itself down the hallway behind them, Riley turned and simply lobbed Marc into one of the rooms, slamming the door shut and releasing a flurry of shots in the direction of whatever putrid amalgamation of corpses had decided to assault the two, Marc promptly complied by landing perfectly face-down into a pool of blood while thinking "I'm supposed to be eating lunch around now"

As he pushed himself up to the wonderful choir of gunfire, Flood moans and the pleasant slurp of blood as it reclaimed space that had been inhabited by him, he reminded himself never to go near ANY military operation, ever. But as he wiped the gore from his face he thought he saw something move, he froze, then slowly leaned to his right, trying to make sure there was nothing there, he really wanted nothing to be there.

That's when the putrid sack of pus with spider legs leaped for him, he squealed, cursed himself for the immasculine sound and ducked, the aforementioned pus-lump slammed the wall with all its might and spun around.

"Your worse than my EX" he exclaimed, unsure of what to do he grabbed a blanket and caught the rancid-rodent when it pounced again, tying the end and hurling the bag at the bed, sagging a moment he started to hear tearing as the creature clawed its way from its prison, Marc fell back, and the small little devil exploded.

Riley, holding a recently used gun, simply looks at the shocked Dr. Marc stating "you just try to get yourself in all kinds of situations"

"It's a talent, but this isn't good, why was it here when it could have possessed any of the body's outside? I think they're in the pipes."

"Wonderful" And with that she pulled him to his feet and they pressed on, as they started to near a guard office Marc started to get his bearings, "hey! There's a safe-room near here, if we can get to it…" he trailed off as they both spotted a dead flood, accompanied by a purple blood trail trailing towards the guard office, head guard office actually, and the trail went under the door. Upon approaching however they realised that quite the collection of flood had assembled to find the killer of their comrade.

Marc knew to get out of the way and entered the office fast, tripping over a discarded, and empty, needler. Falling he thought about the developing habit of falling through doors as he looked on though, he saw Riley closing the door, he wanted to shout but was winded as he hit the carpet. Sitting up he stared at the door as the gunfire erupted, then he felt eyes on him, he slowly turned his head to see the elite commander looking at him, they both flinched as they heard a loud bash, likely Riley being attacked, all marc could manage was "Were screwed."

**SUBJECT:** Andrea Riley

**BACKGROUND:** Andrea Riley was one of the soldiers that fought on the arc, her experience with the flood went unnoticed until guards were needed for the project, she accepted but needed to resolve other "loose ends" before leaving earth.

Julian was staring at her as she closed the door, she had hoped he wouldn't see her, as the battle rifle flared she remembered seeing her friends turning into monsters, news of her family on reach, "survivors guilt" she had been told, well if she was going to save anyone it was going to be that unlucky bastard in the room. As she fired one flood simply ploughed through, slamming her into a wall, she slid down slowly, her vision fading, an elite guard came into view, she pointed to the door and thought: "I'm coming home"

**SUBJECT:** Andrea Riley. **STATUS:** Deceased. **CAUSE:** Beaten to death.

**Continuation: **Julian Marc

A loud explosion emanated from the door, Marc and the commander looked up to see an elite guard open the door.

"Looks like were not 'screwed' as you believed" said the commander and Marc began to form a reply when the guard asked where they should go and the commander advised the safe-room, the guard handed a gun to the commander and lifted Riley's rifle, Marc saw that the ammo count was only a few from nil and exclaimed; "There's almost no ammo!" but the elites just started to leave, he didn't like what he had to do but he walked to her body, while taking a clip from the pocket he thought about how in the short time he had known her she had saved his life a number of times, he could feel his emotion welling up but saw the guard looking so he bit his lip and forced the tears back, these things were all about warrior-male dynamic and he needed their help.

They made a pleasantly uneventful way to the safe-room where the elites turned their translators off, he realised he had forgotten his own so he simply said; "I guess I'll report our position" while shrugging. He knew full well he was going into denial but he reported their survival, he had already finished but pretended to still be on, the two elites behind him had shouted and one punched the wall as he finished, but as he heard their translators come on he turned to see one saluting the other. "So what were you two" then he decided that it may be the very reason they turned their translators off so he changed to "y'know what? I won't ask." He sat and then said simply "My names Julian marc by the way."


End file.
